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Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society 



OF RHODE ISLAND. 



jPERSONAL NARRATIVES: 

Fourth Scries, No. 19. 



,i%%«*k 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN, 

By JOHN H. RHODES, 
Late Sergeant Battery B, First Rhode Island Light Artillery. 



PERSONAL NARRATIVES 



OK EVKNT3 IN THK 



War of the Rebellion, 

BEINO PAPERS BEAD BEFORE THK 

RHODE ISLAND SOLDIERS AND SAILORS 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Fourth Series — No. 19. 



pkovidence: 

published by the socxetv. 

1892. 



Snow & Farnham, Printers, 

37 Custom House Street. 
1S92. 






Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/gettysburggunOOrhod 




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THE 



Gettysburg Gun. 



JOHN H. KHODES, 

[Late Sergeant, Battery B, First Kegiment Rhode Island 

Light Artillery.] 



PROVIDENCE : 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 

1892. 



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[Edition limited to two hundred and fifty copies.] 



07 

o 




Alfred G. Gardner. 



Born in Swansea, Mass., December 2S, 1821. 
Killed at the iiiouili of the Gettyshiirg gun, Jiilv 3, 1863. 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN, 



The brass field piece which stands on the granite 
pedestal at the south side of the State House parade 
has a history unequaled perhaps by any other gun that 
did service in the war for the Union. An honorable 
history it is, for it was the prize for which, in that 
terrible battle of Gettysburg, brave men on both 
sides contended in a deadly hand to hand encounter. 
The battery boys, backed by the brave Sixty-ninth 
Pennsylvania, finally won the prize, but a dearly 
bought one it was, for it was paid for by the sacri- 
fice of the lives of many gallant men. 

The Gettysburg gun was one of the park of six 
brass field light twelve-pounder Napoleons of Bat- 
tery B First Eegiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, 
which the battery received at Harrison Landing, Ya. , 
in exchange for the ten-pounder Parrots with which 



8 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

the inner man for the work that was in prospect be- 
fore them. 

At five A. M. orders were received to move to 
the front, and the battery was soon in motion on 
the Taneytown road to Gettysburg, where we 
arrived about ten a. m., and were assigned position 
in battery on the left of the Second Corps line with 
General Harrow's First Brigade of Second Division 
on Cemetery Ridge, our left being joined by the 
Third Corps. 

General Sickles advanced the Third Corps to the 
front about two p. m., thus creating a gap, and leav- 
ing the Second Corps exposed on its extreme left 
with only Battery B to fill the interval. 

While the Third Corps was engaged at the Devil's 
Den and Peach Orchard in the struggle of the rebels 
for possession of Little Round Top, Battery B was 
advanced to the right and front a few hundred rods, 
about four p. m., upon higher ground in front of the 
main line, at the edge of a small wooded ridge, at Gen- 
eral Gibbon's (Second Division of the Second Corps) 
left front, known as the "Godori's field," and went 
into battery at once, and opened fire upon a rebel 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. V 

battery that had obtained a good range upon General 
Meade's headquarters. After a well directed fire of 
about twenty minutes, the rebel battery could stand 
our fire no longer and withdrew. At this time the 
rebels showed themselves in force at our left front 
moving towards the battery, which the boys thought 
to be our men of the Third Corps falling back; but 
after we had received their fire and heard that well 
known "rebel yell" as they charged for our battery, 
we were in doubt no longer, but sprang to the posts 
at the guns ready to receive them. This force of 
the enemy proved to be General Wright's brigade of 
General Anderson's division, making for the gap 
between the Second and Third Corps. The enemy 
were in solid front of two lines of battle. And as 
our artillery fire cut down their men they would 
waver for a second, then close up and continue to 
advance, their battle flags fluttering in the breeze, 
and the sun reflecting its dazzling rays from the bar- 
rels of their muskets. 

The violent forcing back of General Humphrey's 
division of the Third Corps, brought destruction 
upon the force under Col. George H. Ward, consist- 



10 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

ing of his own regiment the Fifteenth Massachusetts, 
the Eighty-second JSTew York, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Huston, and Battery B, which had by General Gib- 
bin's orders been thrown forward to the Godori 
house on the Emmittsburg road, to partially cover 
the gap caused by the abrupt advancing of the Third 
Corps. 

As the enemy (Wright's brigade), advanced a 
desperate resistance was made by this little band, 
which was far overlapped on their flank, and at last 
compelled to retreat. 

As the enemy were forcing General Humphrey's 
left back towards the line they first occupied, and 
the position where the battery was first placed on 
coming up to the front. General Hancock came gal- 
loping up the line towards his right (going north), 
and saw a portion of the enemy, (Wilcox's brigade) 
coming out into the opening, from the cover of a 
clump of bushes. He looked right and left for troops. 
Turning round he saw a regiment coming up from the 
rear. Dashing up to the colonel, and pointing to the 
enemy's column he exclaimed : " Do you see those 
colors ? Take them." And the gallant First Minne- 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 11 

sota (Colonel Colville), sprang forward, and precipi- 
tated themselves upon the advancing foe, and three- 
fourths of the regiment were destroyed in the impet- 
uous onset. Thus was the gap partially closed, but 
on came the advancing foe. Battery B began firing 
four second spherical case shell, that is, shell filled 
with small lead or iron bullets and powder enough to 
burst them. (Ours contained about seventy in num- 
ber.) Battery B being in an exposed position, it 
received the concentrated fire of the enemy, who 
were advancing so rapidly that the fuses were cut 
at three, two, and one second, and then canister, 
and at last double charges were used to a gun. Then 
came the order, " Limber to the rear ;" and shouts 
from the infantry " Get out, you will all be killed." 
From the battery boys, it was, " Don't give up the 
guns." 

During this time the foe were advancing and firing 
by volleys. Having failed in the attempt to secure 
the gap, their objective point now seemed to be the 
capture of the battery, but the battery was well sup- 
ported by the Sixty-ninth and One Hundred and 
Sixth Pennsylvania boys, and so succeeded in retiring 



12 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

with four pieces leaving two on the field, the horses 
having been killed. In retiring the battery came under 
a heavy enfilading fire from the wing of the flanking 
foe which had overlapped us, and before we could 
retire to the rear of the line of our support, for we 
had to go through a narrow gap in the stone wall 
which made breastworks for the infantry, and only 
one piece at a time, — ^we had many of our men and 
horses wounded. 

As the sixth piece was approaching the gap it was 
forced to halt, as the gap was partially blocked by 
two pieces trying to go through at the same time. 
Before it was cleared, one of the horses on the sixth 
piece was killed and another wounded, so the drivers 
were forced to abandon the horses and gun, the 
enemy being right upon them, some lying down, 
some making for the gap, each side of which a vivid 
flame streamed, sending forth the messengers of 
death to the foe. 

When the order was given "Limber to the rear," 
the fourth piece was loaded, the sergeant (Albert A. 
Straight) waited until it was fired before he repeated 
the order to limber up, and when he did, two of his 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 13 

horses were shot and fell so the order could not be 
executed ; but he gave orders for the men to look 
out for themselves, the gun being left in position on 
the field, and this one is the so called Gettysburg 
gun, and not the sixth piece which was abandoned 
near the gap in the wall.* 

The other pieces which reached the rear of our 
battle line got in battery at once, and opened fire 
again upon the advancing foe, but soon stopped fir- 
ing to enable our infantry to charge. Then came a 
struggle for the possession of those guns. 

The gallant Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania held their 
ground, and advanced with the brigade on the charge, 
drove the foe back and held the guns. When finally 
the rebs were driven back across the Emmittsburs: 
road, the two pieces of Battery B were withdrawn 
from the field to the third position occupied by the 

* In the diary of the sergeant of that piece under date of July 2, 1863, is 
written : 

"We were ordered to limber to the rear when they (the rebs) had got very 
near to us, two of my horses got shot just as the order was given, and I could 
not get my piece off, and the boys had to look out for themselves as the John- 
nies were all around us, and the bullets flew very lively, with some shot and 
shell, all my horses were killed, David B. King was hit and lived but a few 
minutes, and one man was taken prisoner. I got my piece again after the 
charge was over. 

[Signed] Albkkt A. Straight." 

2 



14 THE GETTYSBUEG GUN. 

battery. After the charge the brigade fell back to 
its old position on the ridge, at the wall. 

The casualties of July 2d were three men killed, 
one taken prisoner, and fifteen wounded. Thir- 
teen horses were killed and a number wounded. 
First Lieut. T. Fred. Brown was wounded as the 
battery was withdrawing from the field, and the 
command was assumed by First Lieut. William S. 
Perrin.* 

During this engagement our caissons, with full 
complement of men and horses were parked in the 
rear of the second line of infantry of the corps, 
and remained undisturbed. It was therefore wholly 
upon this account that the battery was enabled to 
take part in the battle of the 3d of July with four 
guns fully equipped. 

Night closed the scene. White robed peace 
flung her mantle, for a brief interval, o'er the victor 
and vanquished, the dying and the dead. Hushed 
was the fearful strife, and sleep closed the eyelids of 
men weary and worn with battle. How many were 

• [The horses as they lay on the field were not despoiled of their harnesses^ 
nor was the ammunition remaining in the limber chests taken by the rebels, as 
has been stated, but all property was recovered intact.] 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 15 

sleeping the last sleep of the living upon this earth, 
and what myriads of heavenly beings were wafting 
the thoughts of those sleeping soldiers back to the 
live ones, to the homes of their childhood days, and 
perhaps to the last sad parting. Morning came all 
too soon, for ere the golden orb of day had tinted 
the east with his splendor the call was to arms, to 
again look death calmly in the face and patiently 
wait the summons to battle. Stern duty lay before 
them, an enemy to conquer, and a government to 
honor and uphold. 

The dawn of July 3d broke in splendor, but 
before the beauty of that magnificent landscape was 
revealed by the first rays of the sun, the clamor of 
human strife broke forth, and rose and swelled to 
fury along the rocky slopes of Gulp's Hill on our 
right. The cause for this was, the Twelfth Corps 
returning from the left found their old position 
occupied by the enemy (Johnson's Division), and 
only waited for daylight to advance and drive the 
intruders out. The contest was sharp but the nature 
of the position did not permit of rapid and decisive 
work. Little by little the enemy was forced back 



16 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

until compelled to give up the ground and to aban- 
don the position to the Twelfth Corps. In Battery 
B on the morning of July 3d, the four pieces were 
so posted that the centre pieces were a little in 
advance of the right and left pieces, so as to bear 
upon and command a given point. First Lieut. W. 
S. Perrin commanded battery and right section, 
Second Lieut. 0. A. Brown commanded left section. 
The Seventy-second Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel 
Baxter, lay to the left and rear of the battery in sup- 
port. Lieutenant Cushing's battery A, Fourth United 
States, held position several rods to our right and a 
little in advance. Several rods to our left on the 
same line was Battery B, First New York in position. 

During the morning a desultory fire of artillery 
was kept up, during which the rebels fire succeeded 
in exploding several ammunition chests of the gun 
limbers, and in return we retaliated and performed 
the same service for them, this being acknowledged 
by both parties with continued shouts and cheers. 

As the forenoon wore on, there came a lull, a 
stillness even of death. A feeling of oppression 
weighed upon all hearts, the silence was ominous and 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 17 

portentous of coming evil. It was the calm which 
precedes the storm. 

At one o'clock in the afternoon a cannon shot 
from the enemy's line, from the Washington Artil- 
lery, was fired on our right followed by another at 
an interval of a minute, breaking the silence brood- 
ing over the scorched battlefield. 

It was a signal well understood, and the smoke of 
those guns had not dispersed before the whole rebel 
line was ablaze, and over one hundred cannon sent 
forth a concerted roar, that rivaled the angriest thun- 
der. Our cannoneers jumped to their places at the 
pieces, the drivers to their horses, waiting the order 
to commence firing. 

It was ten or fifteen minutes before we received 
orders to fire. Then at the command, the shrieking 
shot and shell were let loose upon their work of 
destruction, proving to be one of the most terrible 
artillery duels ever witnessed. 

Then came Pickett's grand charge to break the 
Union centre, sweep the Second Corps from their 
path and then on to Washington. How Lee suc- 
ceeded history tells. 



18 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

It was during this fierce cannonade that one of the 
pieces of Battery B was struck by a rebel shell which 
exploded and killed two cannoneers. The men were 
in the act of loading it. No. 1, William Jones, had 
stepped to his place between the muzzle of the piece 
and wheel, right side, and had swabbed the gun 
and reversed sponge staff, which is also the ram- 
mer, and was waiting for the charge to be inserted 
by No. 2. Alfred G. Gardner, No. 2, had stepped 
to his place between the muzzle of the piece and 
wheel, left side, facing inward to the rear, taking the 
ammunition from No. 5 over the wheel. He turned 
slightly to the left, and was in the act of inserting 
the charge into the piece when a shell from one of 
the enemy's guns, struck the face of the muzzle, left 
side of the bore and exploded. William Jones was 
killed instantly by being struck on the left side of 
his head by a fragment of the shell, which cut the top 
completely off. He fell with his head toward the 
enemy, and the sponge staff was thrown forward 
beyond him two or three yards. 

Alfred G. Gardner was struck in the left shoulder, 
almost tearing his arm from his body. He lived a 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 19 

few minutes and died shouting, " Glory to God ! I 
am happy ! Hallelujah ! " his sergeant and friend 
bending over him to receive his dying request. 

The sergeant of the piece, Albert A. Straight, 
and the remaining cannoneers tried to load the piece, 
placing a charge in the muzzle of the gun. They 
found it impossible to ram it home. Again and 
again they tried to drive home the charge which 
proved so obstinate, but their efforts were futile. 
The depression on the muzzle was so great that the 
charge could not be forced in, and the attempt was 
abandoned, and as the piece cooled off the shot 
became firmly fixed in the bore of the gun. 

This piece is the so called Gettysburg gun of 
Battery B, First Regiment Rhode Island Light 
Artillery.* 

* [Extract from a letter the sergeant of this piece wrote to liis brother John,, 
dated July 7, 1863 : 

"We arrived near to Gettysburg, Penn., on the night of July 1st, and on 
the 2d we had a fight. I had one man killed, David B. King, of my detachment,, 
six horses killed and one wounded. 

The rebels charged our battery and we bad to retire a short distance to the- 
rear of our second line of infantry ; our support in front gave way. But the reb- 
els fared badly, for but few of them got back to tell the story, they were repulsed 
with so terrible a loss.' 1 also had one man missing; probably he was taken 
prisoner, as the rebels were within a few paces of us when we left. 
Lieutenant Brown commanding the battery was badly wounded, also Ser- 
geant Chase and many others. But this was nothing to the next day's fight. 



20 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

By this letter it proves that the piece and carriage 
were struck three times, and that there was an explo- 
sion, for the sergeant says that his piece was struck 
three times by shot or shell before they exploded. 
Now they must have been shell which struck to 
have exploded. The writer distinctly remembers 
seeing the explosion at the piece when the two men 
were killed, but at the time thought that the piece 
had been fired, until told that it was struck by a rebel 
shell. And again if they had been solid shot which 
had struck it the piece would have been dismounted. 

The letter also with other statements of several of 
the cannoneers, proves that it was the fourth piece 
of the battery, and that the gun was disabled by 
being struck by a rebel shell that exploded and 
killed two men that were in the act of loading it ; 

The rebels collected all their artillery and opened a concentrated fire 
upon us. It was terrible beyond description ; the air was full of shell hissing 
and bursting. They came so thick and fast there was no dodging. Three 
shot or shell before they exploded struck my piece, one of them killing my 
No. 1 and No. 2, tearing the head off of No. 1, William Jones, and the 
shoulder and arm off of No. 2, Alfred G. Gardner. He lived a few minutes, and 
died shouting ' Glory to God ! ' and saying he was happy. He requested me to 
send his Bible to his wife, and tell her he died happy. He was a pious man, and 
he and I have been tenting together on this march. 

Your brother, 
[Signed,] Albert Stkaight. 



THE GETTYSBUKG GUN. 21 

that the sergeant and other cannoneers, after it was 
struck, tried to load it but failed, and the charge 
was placed in the bore by the sergeant and stuck 
there. (There is no proof to show whether it was the 
same charge which Gardner had taken to put in or an- 
other one ; butthere was no ammunition found on the 
ground after the piece was withdrawn from the field.) 
And so the shot of that charge which was placed in 
the gun by the sergeant remains firmly fixed in the 
muzzle, and not a rebel shot, as some have claimed 
it to be, and shot in there by one of the enemy's 
guns during the cannonading of July 3, 1863, at the 
battle of Gettysburg. 

Sergeant Straight finding that the piece could not 
be loaded reported it disabled, and was ordered by 
Lieutenant Perrin to have it withdrawn from the 
field to the rear, where the battery wagon and forge 
were stationed. 

About half past two o'clock p. m.. Battery B's 
fire began to slacken for want of men, and ammu- 
nition being about exhausted, and at quarter of three 
p. M. a battery (Cowen's First New York Artillery) 
came up to the ridge on the trot, wheeled into bat- 



22 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

teiy on the left of Battery B's position, and opened 
fire with spherical case shell on the enemy's line of 
infantry moving from the woods towards the Em- 
mittsburg road in their front. Battery B at this 
time was relieved and ordered to the rear to where 
the battery wagon and forge were parked. 

As the battery was limbering up and and retiring, 
the enemy's line of battle could be seen advancing 
from the woods on Seminary Eidge, three-fourths of 
a mile away. A line of skirmishers sprang forward 
lively, and with intervals well kept moved rapidly 
into the open fields, closely followed by a line of 
battle, then by another, and then by a third line. 

General Gibbon's division, which was to stand the 
brunt of this assault, looked with eager gaze upon 
their foe marching forward with easy swinging step ; 
and along the Union line the men were heard to ex- 
claim : " Here they come ! Here they come ! " Soon 
little puffs of smoke issued from the skirmish line as 
it came dashing forward firing in reply to our own 
skirmishers, never hesitating for an instant but driv- 
ing our men before it or knocking them over by a 
biting fire. As they rose up to run in, the rebel 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 23 

skirmishers reached the fence alono; the Emmittsburo- 
road. This was Pickett's advance, which carried a 
front of five hundred yards or more on that memorable 
charge of the Confederates against the Union centre. 
The repulse was one of the turning points against the 
confederates, and helped to break the backbone of 
the Rebellion. 

As Battery B was leaving the line of battle, the 
field in rear of its position was being swept by the 
enemy's shot and bursting shell. The gun detach- 
ments and drivers to avoid this field took three 
pieces to the right, as they were facing to the rear, 
diagonally across towards the Taneytown Road. 
The other piece, of which the writer was lead driver 
at that time, instead of following the others went to 
the left down a cart path towards the same road. 

We had not proceeded far when a shell exploded 
at our right, and a piece of it struck the wheel driver 
Charles G. Sprague on the forehead, cutting a gasb 
from which the blood flowed down his face partlj 
blinding him, so that he could not manage his horses. 
I asked the swing driver, Clarke L. Woodmansee, to 
take the wheel horses and let the swing horses go 



24 , THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

alone. He did so, relieving Spiague. Then we 
started on our way down the path again . The flash 
of bursting shell, and the screeching of shot, which 
were flying thick and fast around us, caused the 
swing horses now that they had no one to manage 
them to plunge first to one side then to the other, 
then backwards which greatly interfered with fur- 
ther progress. Looking to my left I saw one of our 
cannoneers, a detached man from the One Hundred 
and Fortieth Pennsylvania, Joseph Brackell, lying 
beside a large boulder rock. I called to him to come 
and drive them. He came and cleared the horses of 
the traces and mounted. This calmed the horses 
somewhat and we started on for the road again. 
When within a few rods of the road where the path 
descended, a shell at our right exploded,, and 
a piece cut through the bowels of the off wheel 
horse, another striking the nigh swing horse, which 
Brackell was riding, on the gambrel joint, breaking 
the off leg. Still another piece swept across my off 
saddle cutting the nose-bags therefrom, whereby I 
lost my cooking utensils and extra rations I had in 
them . Whipping up my horses I shouted to the other 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 25 

drivers, saying, " Let's get into the road ! " for they 
wanted to stop. We continued on, the wheel horse 
trampling on his bowels all the time, at every step, 
as we swung around down into the road, which was 
three feet lower than the field. Here the wheel 
horse dropped dead, and we could go no further. 
We had cleared the horses from the piece, and were 
about changing the harnesses from dead and wounded 
horses, so as to put the swing horse that was not 
wounded in the place of the dead wheel horse, when 
a shot came and struck the gun wheel taking out a 
spoke and went screeching into the woods. This 
was followed by a shell which exploded in the woods 
in rear of us. This startled the horses and Wood- 
mansee's horse went down the road, he after him. 
Brackell, who had changed saddles, from his crip- 
pled horse to the sound one, now mounted and fol- 
lowed Woodmansee. The crippled horse seeing his 
mate going hobbled on after, trying hard to keep up. 
Being thus left alone I could do nothing there with- 
out help, so I mounted and went down the road to 
find the battery, leaving the piece at the side of the 
road. I found the road was anything but pleasant 



26 ' THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

to travel, for shot and shell were flying about quite 
lively. 

On reaching a barn on the west side of the road 
used as headquarters of artillery brigade of the Sec- 
ond Corps, also a hospital, behind which were several 
staff officers, aids, and some cavalry, I asked 
for Battery B. They pointed down the road. Here 
I met Woodmansee, and together we kept on. We 
had not gone far before we heard a crash and report. 
On looking back saw the men and horses which had 
been back of, the barn going in all directions. A 
shell had struck a corner of that barn and exploded, 
causing the stampede. A short distance from the 
barn in an opening among the woods on the east 
side of the Taneytown road and about a mile from 
our position in line of battle we found Battery B 
parked, and the men in bivouac, as some had shelter 
tents up. I reported that one of the pieces was left 
up in the road near General Meade's headquarters. 

Late in the afternoon after the firing had subsided 
and all was quiet along the lines, Lieutenant Perrin 
with a detail of men, the writer being one of them, 
went back to the field of battle. Our troops had 



THE GETTYSBURG GTHST. 27 

advanced from the position they had occupied when 
the battery left. The ground was strewn with torn 
haversacks, battered canteens, broken wheels of gun 
carriages, and piles of knapsacks and blankets, which 
silently told of the destruction which had visited the 
place. 

The men gathered what accoutrements belonged 
to the battery, which had been left on the field when 
the battery withdrew. Returning to camp by way 
of the cart-path to the road where the third piece had 
been left it was not there. The dead horse lay 
beside the road, but the piece and harness were gone 
and we could sret no information from men about 
there as to who carried it off, or in what direction it 
went. As it could not have fallen into the hands of 
the enemy being within our own lines, it was evi- 
dent that some battery, ordnance or supply wagon 
drew it to the rear where other condemned ordnance 
was parked. As the number of the piece was not 
known to the officers of the battery, it was not 
returned to the battery, or any information obtained 
concerning it so far as the writer can learn. 

Battery B's causalities in the two days' engage- 



28 ' THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

ments on the field were : One officer Second Lieut. 
Joseph S. Milne on detached service with Battery 
A, Cushiug's Fourth United States Artillery, mor- 
tally wounded ; died on or about the 8th or 10th 
of July. He was the only Rhode Island officer killed 
at the battle of Gettysburg. First Lieut. T. Fred. 
Brown, commanding, was wounded July 2d, behind 
the ear. First Lieut. William S. Perrin, commanding 
July 3d, was wounded in leg, but remained with the 
battery in command. Of the men there were five 
killed, one taken prisoner, and one missing ; thirty- 
two were wounded, nineteen of whom were sent to 
the general hospital, where two died. The others 
were cared for in camp, their wounds being slight, 
and in a few days they were on duty again. Thus 
the total loss was thirty-nine men. The names of 
those killed were : July 2d, David B. King; Tra 
L. Bennett, of the Nineteenth Maine Regiment, 
Michael Flynn, of the Fifteenth Massachusetts. 
July 3d, Alfred G. Gardner and William Jones. 

Wounded and sent to the hospital : July 2d, 
Orderly Sergt. John T. Blake, Sergt. Edwin A. 
Chase, Corp. Henry H. Ballou, acting sergeant 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 29 

(died), Corp. Chas. D. Worthington, Russell Aus- 
tin, Mowiy L. Andrews, Michael Duflfy, George Mc- 
Gunnigle, William Maxcy, Charles H. Paine, Charles 
G. Sprague, Albert J. Whipple, Thomas W. Phillips, 
Buofler Eben S. Crowninshield. Detached men : 
Dyer Cady, Fifteenth Massachusetts ; Lewis Moul- 
ton. Nineteenth Maine. On the 3d of July : Daniel 
N. Felt, John Green (died), George R. Matteson, 
wounded. Joseph Cassen was taken prisoner, and 
William H. Gallup was missing. There were sixty- 
five horses killed and wounded, and all the pieces 
were rendered unserviceable, condemned, and turned 
in to the ordnance department. 

The fourth piece of the battery (the so-called 
Gettysburg gun) , upon examination showed that the 
gun and gun carriage had been struck three times 
with shell, and also showed thirty-nine bullet marks, 
which serve to remind those who may look upon it 
of the ordeal through which it passed in that fearful 
strife. This gun with other condemned ordnance 
was sent to the Arsenal at Washington, D. C, there 
placed on exhibition, where it remained until May, 
1874. 



30 THE GETTYSBUEG GUN. 

As the guns of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode 
Island Light Artillery, were upon examination found 
to be all right and serviceable after the battle, and 
as they had lost heavily in both men and horses, the 
remaining men and horses of Battery B were tem- 
porarily consolidated with them, forming the left 
section, with our First Lieut. William S. Perrin in 
command of section. And thus Battery B followed 
General Lee back into Virginia to the Rapidan River. 

On August 8th, by orders Battery B left Battery A, 
proceeding to Bealton Station, and there on the 16th 
received a battery of four new light Napoleon brass 
pieces and caissons, a battery wagon and forge com- 
plete ; also harnesses and equipments for their horses 
from the ordnance department, making us a four-gun 
battery, with three commissioned officers. For men 
we had a number of volunteers from the infantry to 
serve as cannoneers, so we were again fully equipped 
for service, as Battery B, First Rhode Island Light 
Artillery, and remained in active service until the 
end of the war, being mustered out, June 12, 1865. 
In 1870 the surviving members of the battery held a 
reunion at Rocky Point, R. L, on the thirteenth day 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 31 

of August, that being the anniversary of the date of 
their muster into the United States service, and there 
formed a veteran association to hold annual reunions 
upon that day. At the reunions held afterward the 
subject of this gun has been an animated matter of 
discussion. Through efforts of the members of the 
Association, the citizens of Rhode Island, and Hon. 
Henry B. Anthony, late senator from this State, 
Congress honored the Association with the privi- 
lege of placing this memento of the battle of Gettys- 
burg in the care and protection of the State of Rhode 
Island. 

In 1874, Daniel C. Taylor, then president of Bat- 
tery B, Veteran Association, was largely instrumental 
in having the gun turned over from the general gov- 
ernment to the State, and, with Lieut. James E. 
Chase and J. Borden Lewis, was appointed a com- 
mittee to go to Washington, D. C, to receive the 
gun ; also a copy of the act of Congress giving the 
gun to the State. This copy was obtained by Sena- 
tor Henry B. Anthony, who had it suitably en- 
grossed and presented to the Association. 

The following is a copy of the act of Congress : 



32 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

AN ACT AUTHOEIZIN'G THE SECKETAKY OF WAE TO 
DELIVEK TO THE STATE AUTHOKITIES OF KHODE 
ISLAND A CERTAIN GUN. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled: 

That the Secretary of War be and he is hereby authorized to 
deliver, if the same can be done without detriment to the gov- 
ernment, to the proper authorities of the State of Ehode Island, 
a certain gun marked Battery B First Regiment of Rhode Island 
Light Artillery, battle of Gettysburg, for the purpose of being 
placed among the achives of that State. 

JAMES G. BLAINE, 
Speaker of House of Bepreseniatives. 

MATT. H. CARPENTER, 
President of the Senate Pro. Tem. 

Approved February 19, 1874. 

U. S. GRANT. 

At Providence, R. I., on May 21, 1874, there 
was a grand military demonstration on the reception 
of Battery B's relic, and the delivery cf the gun to 
the State, which took place under very trying and 
moist aspects of the weather, with the following com- 
mittees in charge viz. : 

Governor Henry Howard, Gen. Chas. R. Dennis, Hon. J. M. 
Addeman in behalf of the State ; Mayor Thomas A. Doyle, Col. 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 33 

N. Van Slyck, Henry K. Barker, in behalf of the city; Col. A. 
C. Eddy, George E. Drowne, Lieut. James E. Chace, John F. 
Hanson, Finance Committee; Col. J. Albert Monroe, Col. E. 
H. Ehodes, J. Borden Lewis, Programme Committee; Gen. 
Charles K. Dennis, Edwin Metcalf , Silas G. Tucker, Keception 
Committee; Lieut. James E. Chase; Daniel C. Taylor, Pres- 
ident; J. Borden Lewis, Gun Committee; Col. J. Albert Mon- 
roe, Chief Marshal ; Col. E. H. Ehodes, Chief of Staff. 

The patter of the rain Thursday morning was any- 
thing but merry music to the Battery B boys who 
heard it, and to the veterans and militia who were 
to join them in the parade and demonstration. 

Everything looked blue to the boys except the 
sky, and that was dull enough, while the rain poured 
as if it had set in for a long storm and was taking it 
easy. Old Probabilities was anxiously consulted but 
he had no encouragement to offer. But in spite of 
the weather flags were thrown to the breeze from 
public and private flag-staffs as if to encourage us. 

In front of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on 
Exchanore Place a stand had been erected for the 
formal exercises, with a national flag flying at each 
corner, and in the centre a banner bearing the clover 
leaf (Trefoil) of the Second Corps, under which in a 



34 ' THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

scroll was the thrilling word, " Gettysburg." There 
was little evidence that this stand would be wanted 
or used that day. 

The marshal and commanding officers of various 
organizations met together to consult about post- 
ponement. Postponement meant almost certain fail- 
ure, while if carried out the demonstration if not what 
was expected and wished, would at least have the 
merit of spirit and punctuality, and show that when 
the veterans take hold of anything they mean busi- 
ness. 

Before a decision was reached the cars arrived from 
Westerly bringing the Westerly Eifle Battalion of 
one hundred and three men, under command of Col. 
A. N. Crandall, who, undaunted by the weather, had 
come to parade. This was encouraging certainly, and 
before the enthusiasm created by this had subsided, 
tho boat arrived from Newport with two bands and 
the Newport Artillery and Veteran Association. 
More encouragement and matters began to assume 
more life . 

Lieutenant-Colonel Bullock of the First Light 
Infantry Regiment on being asked what his command 



THE GETTYSBURa GUN. 35 

would do, quickly replied, " We shall parade if you 
do." And the same reply was received from the 
United Train of Artillery, the Marine Artillery, and 
many of the other organizations. With all this en- 
courao-ement and the fact that most of the men had 
come prepared to parade, the matter was decided 
and the order given : " Prepare for Parade." 

The rain, however, caused some changes in the 
proceedings, the route of march was cut short, and 
Music Hall was engaged for the exercises intended 
for Exchange Place. 

An arrangement was made for an artillery signal 
at two o'clock to inform the different organizations 
what to do. At half past one o'clock it let up some- 
what, and just about two o'clock the Marine Artillery 
marched into Exchange Place and fired the signal 
gun, which said to those in waiting, — Parade. 

At this time a large force of the umbrella brigade 
lined the sidewalks, while every window on Ex- 
change Place was crowded to the utmost, and matters 
soon began to assume a lively aspect. 

The militia was promptly on hand, soon followed 
by the other organizations arriving from different 



36 THE GETTYSBUEG GUN. 

directions, and all were assigned positions by the 
chief marslial and aides. 

THE LINE. 

Col. J. Albert Monroe, Chiel Marshal. 
Col. Elisha H. Rhodes, Chief of Stafe. 



First Division, Mounted Troops. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Brownell, Assistant Marshal. 

Providence Horse Guards, Col. J. Lippitt Snow 

commanding, and staff of six field officers. 

Co. A, Capt. Geo. B. Inmau, three officers and fifteen men. 

Co. B, Captain David Lester, two officers and fifteen men. 

Pawtucket Horse Guards, Major J. W. Leckie 

commanding, staff and line officers, thirty-five men. 

Tower Light Battery, Pawtucket, Major Daniel Briggs 

commanding, one officer and sixteen men. 



Second Bimsion, Mounted Light Battery . 

Adjutant J. M. Hull, Assistant Marshal. 

Providence Marine Corps of Artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel 

Robert Grosvenor commanding, eight officers and 

six pieces and caissons fully manned . 



Third Division, Veteran Associations. 

Lieut. James E. Chace, Assistant Marshal. 

Platoon of Police, Sergeant Warner. 

American Band, D. W. Reeves, leader, twenty-eight pieces. 



THE GETTYSBURa GUN. 37 

First Eegiment Rhode Island Veteran Association, thirty men. 
Second Regiment Rhode Island Veteran Association, 

Col. Horatio Rogers, President, fifty men. 
Third Regiment Rhode Island Veteran Association, 

Gen. Charles R. Brayton, President, sixty men. 
Ninth Regiment Rhode Island Veteran Association, 
J. T. Pitman, President, twenty men. 
Eleventh Regiment Rhode Island Veteran Association, 
Robert Fessenden, President, twenty men. 
First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery Veteran Associa- 
tion, I. R. Sheldon, Vice-President, forty men. 
Ives Post, No. 13, G. A. R., R. F. Nicola, commander, 
twenty -five men. 
Battery B, First Rhode Island Light Artillery Veteran Associ- 
ation, forty men. 



As escorts to the Gettysburg- Gun. 

Lieutenant Gideon Spencer, commanding. 

Sergt. John F. Hanson, orderly. 

The Gun Detachment with Gun. 

Edwin A. Chace, sergeant of piece. 

Corporal Edward B. Whipple, gunner. 

No. 1. Benj. A. Burlingame. No. 2. Josiah McMeekin. 

No. 3. Joseph Cassin. No. 4. Chas. D. Worthington. 

No. 5. John Delavan. No. 6. Charles Cornell. 

No. 7. Charles J. Rider. 

Drivers, Joseph Cole, lead; Levi J. Cornell, swing; Stephen 

Collins, wheel. 



38 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

John Healy, with the old headquarters flag of the Artillery- 
Brigade of the Second Corps. 



The Fourth Division, Invited Guests. 

Sergt. Silas G. Tucker, Assistant Marshal. 

Governor Henry Howard, Lieut.-Governor C. C. Van Zandt, 

Adjutant-General H. LeFavour, in carriage. 

Colonel Waterman, Colonel Barstow, Colonel Nightingale. 

Colonel Eobinson of Governor's staff, mounted. 

Maj.-Gen. Wm. K. Walker, Colonels Jenks and Fisk, Majors 

Tillinghast, Deming and Pierce, of his staff, in carriage. 

Q. M. Gen. Chas. R. Dennis, Surgeon-General King, in carriage. 

Brigadier- General Burdick, Chaplain Jones, Surgeon Turner, 

Captains Marvell and Sisson of his staff, mounted. 

Brig.-Gen. Frederick Miller, and Capt. A. E. Greene, 

Capt. W. B. Vincent of his staff, in carriage, all in new uniforms. 

Major-General Warren, TJ. S. A., commander of Fifth Army 

Corps. Major-General Averill, U. S. A,, commander Cavalry 

Division. Col. A. P. Blunt, Quartermaster, U. S. A. 

Brig.-Gen, John G. Hazard, U. S. Volunteers. 

Col. W, H, Reynolds of First Regiment Rhode Island Light 

Artillery. 

Brev, Lieut.-Col. J. H, Rice, U. S. A,, Maj. C. E. Rice, U. S, A. 

Capt. C. E. Bowers, Massachusetts Volunteers. 

Capt. N. N. Noyes, Boston Light Infantry. 

Capt. T. L. Harlow, Company C Fourth Battalion of Infantry, 

and H. E. Hotchkiss, of New Haven, Connecticut. 

James Foley, of New York, and C. E. Tucker, Blackstone, 

Massachusetts, all in carriages. 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 39 

Fifth Division State Militia. 

Capt. C. Henry Barney, Assistant Marshal. 

Drum corps of eight pieces. 

Westerly Kifle Battalion, Col. A. N. Crandall commanding, 

with eight field and staff officers. 

Co. A, Capt. A. B. Dyer, four officers and forty-eight men. 

Co. B, Capt. J. A. Brown, four officers and thirty-five men. 

Burnside National Guards, Maj. Geo. H. Black commanding, 

three field and staff officers. 

Co. A, Capt. W. H. Scott, three officers and twenty-six men. 

Co. B, Capt. Thomas Brinn, three officers and thirty men. 

Co. C, Capt. Lewis Kenegee, three officers and thirty-two men . 

Newport Brass Band, J. E. O. Smith, leader, twenty-six pieces. 

United Train of Artillery, Col. Oscar Lapham, commanding, 

six field and staff officers. 

Co. A, Capt. G. A. Dodge, thi-ee officers and twenty men. 

Co. B, Capt. F. S. McCausland, two officers and twenty-two men. 

Co. C, Capt. C. G. Cahoone, two officers and twenty men. 

Gilmore's, Pawtucket Band, T. J. Allen, leader, 

twenty-two pieces. 

Ehode Island Guards, Colonel J. Costine, commanding, 

three staff and field officers. 

Co. A, J. H. McGann, three officers and thirty-eight men. 

Co. D, Capt. J. E. Curren, three officers and thirty men. 

Co. G, Lieut. William McPherson, two officers and 

thirty-six men. 

Co. H, Capt. James Leary, three officers and thirty-two men. 

First Light Infantry Drum Corps, G. W. Lewis, leader, 

twelve men. 



40 THE GETTY SBUEG GUN. 

First Liglit Infaatry Regiment, Col. R. H. I. Goddard 

commanding, four field and staff officers. 

Co. A, Capt. J. H. Kendrick, 

three officers and twenty-eight men. 

Co. B, Capt. E. F. Annable, three officers and twenty-seven men. 

Co. C, Captain Wm. Frankland, three officers and 

thirty-five men. 

Co. D, Capt. A. H. Hartwell, two officers and twenty-five men. 

Drum Major Charles Whitters, of Hartford. 

National Band, Wm. E. White, leader, twenty-seven pieces. 

Slocum Light Guards, Lieut.-Col. Benj. P. Swarts 

commanding, two staff officers. 

Co. A, Capt. W. B. W. Hallett, three officers and twenty men. 

Co. B, Lieutenant B. McSoley, two officers and twenty men. 

The First Light Infantry Regiment wore their fatigue uni- 
forms, with red blankets belted at the waist. They had as 
their guests, Col. B. B. Martin, Maj. J. B. Childs, Adjt. B. M. 
Bosworth, Jr., and Quartermaster F. E. Dana, of the Warren 
Artillery, Col. Julies Sayles, Lieut. Col. J. D. Seabury, Maj. How- 
ard Smith, Capt. Silas De Blois, Q. M. Benj. Marsh, Surgeon 
Henry E. Turner, Paymaster George H. Wilson of the Newport 
Artillery Veteran Association and Lieutenant-Colonel Sherman 
of the Newport Artillery. The United Train of Artillery were 
attired in fatigue uniforms, with dress caps and pompon, and 
had for their guests the Westerly Rifle Regiment, the Newport 
Brass Band and the field and staff officers of the Pawtucket 
Light Guards. The Slocum Light Guards were in fatigue dress 
and overcoats, and their guests were Captain Morse, of Com- 
pany G, Third Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, the 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 41 

Taunton Guards, of Taunton, Mass., Capt. N. N. Noyes, of Bos- 
ton Light Infantry, and Captain Hanlon and Lieutenant Fallon 
of the Boston Tigers, Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. 

A pleasant feature to the Battery boys, was the 
presence in the Association line of the old headquar- 
ters flag of the Artillery Brigade of the Second 
Corps. 

At 3.15 p. M. the column moved in good order 
through the following streets ; Dorrance, up West- 
minster, Mathewson, Washington, Franklin, down 
High to Broad, Weybosset to Market Square, 
countermarching over the bridge through Washing- 
ton Row to Exchange Place, Dorrance to Westmin- 
ster, up to Music Hall, which was reached at four 
o'clock, and though the rain was then falling briskly 
the streets were lined with interested spectators. 
The line was a fine one all things considered, and 
gave evidence of what the demonstration would have 
been had the weather been more favorable. 

At Music Hall the American Band, D. W. Reeves, 
leader, was stationed in the seats between the organ 
and the platform. On the platform were His Excel- 
lency Gov. Henry Howard and staff. Lieut. Gov. C. 



42 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

C. VanZanclt, Maj.-Gen. A. E. Burnside, Maj.-Gen. 
W. R. Walker and staff; Brig.-Gen. F. Miller and 
staff; Rev. Carlton A. Staples, Orator of the Day; 
Rev. D. H. Greer, Chaplain of the Day; Daniel C. 
Taylor, President of Battery B Veteran Association, 
Brig.-Gen. John G. Hazard, as presiding officer, and 
the different committees of arrangements. 

After music by the American Band and prayer 
by Chaplain Greer, the Chairman, General Hazard, 
introduced Daniel C. Taylor, President of Battery B 
Veteran Association for the delivery of the gun to 
the State, which he said should make every Rhode 
Islander proud. 

President Taylor, who was warmly received upon 
coming forward, then formally delivered the gun to 
to the State authorities in the following address : 

ToTJE Excellency: As presiding officer of Battery B Vete- 
ran Association, the duty devolves upon me to place in your 
custody and keeping, as chief executive officer of this State this 
piece of ordnance, consecrated to liberty, and baptized in the 
blood of Rhode Island's sons. And to impress more fully upon 
your heart, if possible, the sacredness of this honored relic to 
us, I desire to give you a brief history of this gun from the time 
of its reception by us as a part of our battery until the present. 



THE GETTYSBUEG GUN. 



43 



During the Peninsular campaign tlie battery consisted of 
four Parrott guns and two brass howitzers. After the terrible 
seven days battle which terminated at Malvern Hill, and the 
Army of the Potomac found rest at Harrison Landing, on the 
James Eiver, Va., the vents of our guns were found to be in 
such a condition as to render the guns unfit for service. They 
were therefore condemned, and their places supplied upon the 
31st of July, 1862, by a park of new guns, consisting of six 
brass twelve-pound Napoleons, of which this gun was one. 

Upon the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac Bat- 
tery B was attached to the Second Brigade, General Gorman, 
Second Division, General Sedgwick, Second Corps, General 
Sumner, which position they held during the war, notwith- 
standing the various changes which took place of commanders 
of brigade, division or corps. The battery with this piece and 
others, was at the shelling of the town of Fredericksburg, 
Va., Dec. 11, 1862. Stationed at the right of the Lacy House, 
on a blufE overlooking the town, it fired three hundred and 
eighty-four rounds of shot and shell upon the town and the 
rebel rifie-pits, when the pontoon bridge was being laid. On 
the morning of December 12th, at six o'clock, we crossed the 
bridge and entered the town, being the first battery to cross at 
this place. 

At the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13th, the battery 
was at four o'clock in the afternoon ordered to the front, and 
took position on the left of the road at the brick house in front 
of the stone wall, and here did good service. The battery did 
similar service at the second battle of Fredericksburg or Mayre's 
Heights. 



44 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

About the 18tli of June commenced the skirmishes which ter- 
minated in the great struggle of Gettysburg. 

July 1st the battery with the Second Corps arrived within 
three miles of the town, and July 2d was assigned position in 
battery about ten o'clock in line of the Second Corps and to the 
left of Cemetery Hill, our line being joined by the Third Corps 
on our left. In the afternoon while the Third Corps was en- 
gaged, the battery was advanced to the right and front, and 
engaged a rebel battery at once, and in this position the battery 
was charged upon, and forced to retire to the rear of the lines 
of infantry. 

On the 3d of July the battery and this gun took part in that 
great artillery duel just before Pickett's grand charge, and it was 
in this fierce storm of shot and shell that this piece was struck 
by a shell which exploded and killed two men in the act of load- 
ing it. This shell disabled the gun so that it could not be 
loaded. It was condemned and sent to Washington, D. C. At 
the Arsenal it was placed on exhibition, where it remained until 
this time; and, sir, I am proud to say that to me has been ac- 
corded the privilege of obtaining through our honored senator, 
Henry B. Anthony and others, this valued memento for the peo- 
ple of Khode Island, and as an ever pleasant reminder to our 
children of that loyalty and fidelity to duty that actuated their 
sires, and may they learn and profit by the experience of their 
fathers. And in behalf of my comrades I desire to express the 
wish that this piece of ordnance may be deposited upon the 
green in front of the State House in this city within an appro- 
priate enclosure, and that it be protected during the inclement 
season by a suitable covering. And with the strong conviction 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 45 

that our wishes will be carried out, I leave the piece in your 
possession and care. 

The address was very attentively listened to, and 
at its close was very earnestly applauded. 

Governor Howard who remained standing during 
President Taylor's address responded as follows : 

Me. President : Rhode Island accepts the honorable trust 
which you confide to her. She takes into her faithful keeping 
this mute witness, this interesting memento of the most decis- 
ive and glorious struggle known to the annals of freedom. 
More than this, reminded by its presence of the eventful scene 
which attended that triumph of our arms, of the heroic devo- 
tion and valor of her own ever honored sons, recalling the noble 
andresolute ardor of patriotism which impelled them to stand an 
impregnable barrier between a flushed and superior force and 
the menaced firesides of the North, she assumes with the trust 
the higher guardianship of the holy memories and associa- 
tions which this occasion revives, recognizing in the inspira- 
tion of the hour a lesson and a mandate for the future, she dedi- 
cates herself to the pious care of guarding with the reverent 
tenderness of a mother's love, the fair fame of those who stood 
for her and the nation on the ensanguined crest of Gettysburg. 
Survivors of the field, your State folds you in its grateful arms 
to-day. Spirits above who poured out your young lives in 
availing though costly sacrifice for us, receive the inadequate 
homage of our saddened remembrance and our eternal grati- 
tude. 



46 ' THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

The governor's remarks elicited another spirited 
manifestation of approval. 

The chairman, General Hazard, then introduced 
the Orator of the Day, Eev. Carlton A. Staples, late 
Chaplain United States Volunteers, who delivered 
the following eloquent oration : 

EEV. C. A. STAPLES'S ORATION. 

The occasion which has brought us together is one of no or- 
dinary interest. This gun which has now been delivered up to 
the State of Rhode Island is a sacred relic of the war which 
saved the Union. . By the valor of your sons it did good service 
in that war, and in the blood of your sons it was baptized. Let 
us call it then a precious, a sacred memento. For suffering 
borne in a noble cause, sacrifice cheerfully made for the high- 
est interest of man, life yielded up heroically in defence of 
honor, of country, of freedom, make any object or spot sacred 
to the human breast. Hence the undying interest which gathers 
about every place where martyrs have suffered or heroes have 
died for the truth. Hence the reverence with which we trace 
the footsteps of the first settlers on this wild New England 
shore. Hence the solemn feeling that steals over the soul at 
Thermopylae and Marathon, at Bannockburn and Marston 
Moor, at Bunker Hill and Valley Forge. The heroism, suffer- 
ing, and blood of men in behalf of country and right sanctify 
the meanest object and glorify the humblest place. 

What but a life like Christ's, laid upon the altar of a love for 
man so broad, sweet and high, could have changed an instru- 



THE. GETTYSBURG GUN. 47 

ment of torture and shame like the cross into an object of in- 
spiration and of beauty? Since the war we have felt a new 
respect for the musket, the cannon, and the soldier. Not that 
war seems less dreadful, or, when waged in behalf of injustice 
and for territorial conquest, less wicked. No pen has ever ade- 
quately pictured its horrors. No christian heart but shrinks from 
it as from the fires of hell. No real soldier who has been in one 
battle ever desires to be in another. But horrible as war always 
is and must be; there are things worse than war — ^national dis- 
grace and dishonor are worse; national indifference to princi- 
ples of justice, to the inalienable rights of man, and all the in- 
terests of his higher nature, are worse. Better war with all its 
suffering agony and loss, than a peace of moral stagnation and 
decay. We are fond of saying that "The pen is mightier than 
the sword." But when the pen is enlisted in the cause of rob- 
bery and oppression, it produces a state of society at last which 
only the sword can purify. Thought may be a weapon stronger 
than cannon balls. But wrong thinking, and wrong acting, to 
which it so often leads, sometimes necessitates the use of can- 
non balls to beat down the falsehood and let in the light of 
truth. It is right thinking, and, what is nobler, right living, 
that are to sheath every sword at last, and stop the mouth of 
every gun. Unless the pen, therefore, be guided by an intelli- 
gent mind, and an honest and good heart, these instruments of 
destruction will be needed to undo its baleful work. 

Looking at the War of the Rebellion from this point of view, 
and in this connection, as we stand around this sacred memento, 
we feel towards it something of the tenderness and respect of 
the Arab for the noble steed that has saved him from his mortal 
foe. 



48 ' THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

For this gun, manned by our brothers and sons on many a 
battlefield, has beaten back the hosts that sought our country's 
ruin. At Gettysburg it saved our Northern cities from being 
sacked and burned, and our homes from devastation and 
death. 

With its hundred fellows it kept our line firm and strong on 
that momentous day, and broke to pieces the ranks of the ad- 
vancing foe. Those guns and bayonets in the hands of our 
valiant men knocked the shackles from the limbs of three 
million slaves, and made the Declaration of Independence some- 
thing more than a glittering generality in this land. They 
svs^ept away as in a whirlwind of flame a thousand old false- 
hoods and wrongs, and let in the light which pulpit, platform 
and press had resolutely barred out. They made it possible 
for an American citizen to call his country a land of equal rights 
and privileges without a flush of shame. 

Take this gun, then, and place it among the proudest archives 
of the State. Cherish it as a precious legacy from the men 
who bore it into the fore-front of the battle, and laid down their 
lives in serving it there. Tell your children and your chil- 
dren' s children the story of its triumph ; a triumph not of men 
over men, but of truth over error; right over wrong; free- 
dom over slavery. And bid them remember that whenever they 
cling to false principles and base practice in the conduct of the 
government, embody the idea in law that any class, condi- 
tion or sect may have superior privileges or power, and array 
themselves against the reform of any injustice or corruption in 
the State, they are building up a condition of society, which, at 
last will surely let loose the dogs of war. For so deep in the soul 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 49 

has the Almighty planted the love of justice, and of equality 
before the law, that no community can outrage that sentiment 
even in its treatment of the lowest members without kindling 
in its own bosom the fire of ceaseless strife, and destroying the 
fabric of its own peace and power, " First pure, then peaceable," 
says the Apostle. It is as truly the divine order in social and 
political life as it is in the experience of the individual soul. 

Of the history of the battery to which this gun belonged, it 
does not need that I should speak. The story of its organiza- 
tion, its long marches, its fierce and bloody conflicts with the 
foe, its faithful service and its heroic sacrifice, has been already 
told by one who bore a part in these things, and by whom they 
are much better understood. 

Among those who lost their lives in this engagement we would 
mention Second Lieut. Joseph S. Milne, a gentleman and a sol- 
dier, who is said to have endeared himself to the hearts of his 
brother officers, and commanded the love and respect of every 
member of the battery. He was born at Fall Eiver, Mass., his 
father being a minister of the Gospel, and at the time of his 
death his mother was engaged in teaching a contraband school 
at Hilton Head. A short time before he was employed at the 
Post and Herald office in this city, and was the only officer the 
battery lost during the service. 

The men shot at this gun were William Jones, a native of 
Boston, Mass., one of the original members of the battery, and 
Alfred G. Gardner, a recruit. 

All this has passed into history, and occupies an honorable 
place in the record made by the State of Khode Island during 
the war. 
5 



50 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

But there is an unwritten history lying behind these external 
events which gives them their real significance and glory. 
Though this gun be forever silenced, though its voice will 
never again be heard in thunders of war, yet it speaks to us 
and those who ai'e to come after us in tones that cannot be mis- 
understood. It tells us of what manner of men they were who 
came forth at the call of their country, and bared their bosoms 
to shield her from death. Its dumb lips are eloquent to minds 
that can grasp and hearts that can feel the real nobility of their 
spirits. Truer, braver souls never went up to God in the fiery 
chariot of battle than they. I know that they came from hum- 
ble homes, that their hands were hardened by the toil of the 
workshop, the factory and the farm. I know that thousands of 
them had no expectation of rising above the humblest place in 
the ranks, and were content to stand there and to bear on their 
shoulders the awful burdens of war that their country might be 
saved. But in the main they were men of royal stuff. They 
went out from good homes. They had been trained in the 
common schools and taught to reverence the principles of jus- 
tice and of truth. They knew what was at stake in the war. 
They were thoughtful men. They were reared in the love of 
peace. All their aspirations and 'plans in life belonged to peace- 
ful arts and industries. 

But when the call came how grandly they responded to it, 
and through the long, dreadful years of the war, in camps, in 
hospitals, in rebel prisons, under delay and defeat, how patient, 
how true and how firm they were. In victory how magnani- 
mous, in suffering how heroic, in death how peaceful ! As I 
call to mind the scene on the Plains of Abraham when Wolfe 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 51 

died in the moment of victory, saying, "I am content," and 
Nelson, on the deck of his ship, expiring just as the awful bat- 
tle had been won, serene and happy, I see the glory of that 
spirit in man which rises above the horrors of war, and is 
mightier than death. But I have seen a spirit as high, serene 
and happy in the humblest man of our armies, dying in dreary 
hospitals and camps, well knowing that no monument would 
ever be raised to their memory, nor mother, wife, nor fi'iend 
look upon their graves. "Tell my wife and children," said a 
dying soldier shot down on picket duty at night, " that I have 
done the best I could." "You are dying for your country," 
said one who knelt beside him. "That is what I came here 
for," was the reply, and so he fell asleep. 

And what can be more glorious than the spirit of Alfred 
Gardner, who stood beside this gun under that terrific fire at 
Gettysburg, and placed that shot in its muzzle which a rebel 
shell caused to be sealed there forever? He fell at his post, his 
arm and shoulder torn from his side ; but with the other arm 
he drew from his pocket a Testament and a little book which 
he carried with him to press flowers, and handing them to his 
sergeant said, " Give these to my wife, and tell her that I died 
happy — glory, glory, hallelujah! " J^elson when dying remem- 
bered his mistress, and commended her to the care of his coun- 
try. Gardner remembei'ed his Testament, his herbarium and 
his wife, and departed shouting, " Glory, hallelujah," amid the 
roaring of two hundred guns. 

Do not such men deserve to be remembered with prayers 
and tears of gratitude? Thousands as heroic, as faithful, as 
grand, fell in that awful strife. Call them "hirelings," "the 



52 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

refuse of our cities? " Shame on such words and all who utter 
them ! Call them the kings and priests of liberty. Call them 
the saviors of republican institutions and the servants of the 
living God. On such an occasion as this it is well for us to re- 
member what it has cost to save republican institutions in this 
land, and free our country from the curse of slavery. I speak 
not of the .^millions of treasure swallowed up and lost in the 
war; of the mountains of debt heaped upon us and the burdens 
of taxation laid upon our industry and our wealth ; nor of the 
suffering and agony which it carried to ten thousand homes, 
filling them with loneliness and gloom, but of the cost in valu- 
able lives, in men who added something to the intelligence, the 
patriotism, the conscience, the moral integrity of the country. 
We have lost not only countless millions of money and prop- 
erty, but an aggregate of moral character and influence a thou- 
sand times more valuable. The best blood of the country was 
poured out on the battlefields of the war. No man can tell 
how much poorer we are as a people, in conscience, in honor, 
in manliness for its loss. There is less political integrity 
among us ; less care that high public offices be filled by compe- 
tent and worthy men; less fidelity to principle in the use of the 
ballot ; less vigilance in protecting the sacredness of the ballot. 
There is greater greed for riches, and less scruple about the 
means used to gain them. There is a lower sense of honor in 
the discharge of sacred trusts, and a deeper craving for sensa- 
tional excitement and extravagant display; a lower tone in 
social and political life, due largely to the loss of moral charac- 
ter incurred by the death of so many thousands of our noblest 
men. We miss them sorely in our homes and in all the pleas- 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 53 

ant walks of life. But more than this, we miss them in the 
pulse of the public conscience, of mercantile honor, of legisla- 
tive purity, of corporate and municipal faith. An approximate 
estimate can be made of the money cost, but who can gauge 
the moral cost of saving the Union? 

And is it not well that we should be reminded in the presence 
of such a relic as this of what remains to be done in the work 
of our country's salvation? 

The nation was saved in that awful crisis by a great valor and 
terrible sacrifice. 

And we are all too ready to cry out, " It is finished," and 
shut our eyes in security and peace, forgetting that it needs a 
continual saving. We think the cannon and the bayonet closed 
up the work forever at Appomattox Court-House, leaving us 
all free to pursue our private schemes of gain or pleasure. But 
I tell you a greater peril than rebel armies will soon be upon us 
if we yield ourselves up to this false sense of security. "A 
government of the people, by the people, and for the people," 
requires the constant interest and vigilant activity of the peo- 
ple. Without them it must soon fall a prey to the machinations 
of bad men. Without them the filth of the gutters will rise up 
to the high places of power in its cities, its halls of legislation 
and its courts. If eternal vigilance be the price of liberty it is 
also the price of purity and safety in a republican government. 
And if we care so little for this grand heritage, received from 
the fathers and preserved at the cost of so much treasure and 
blood, that we will not give a day in the year from our business 
to prevent bribery at the polls and help elect good men to all 
offices of trust and responsibility; if we care so little what 



54 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

kind of men represent us in the City Council, in tlie Legisla- 
ture and in Congress, what kind of sentiments they utter or 
laws they make, that we never look into their private life or 
hold them to account for the course they pursue in their public 
actions; if we are too indifferent or too busy to pay any regard 
to the country's welfare in such vital matters as these, who will 
say we deserve to have a country, or that we are worthy of the 
great legacy that has been bestowed upon us, or the tremendous 
sacrifices that have been made for us? I see cause for alarm in 
this growing neglect of political duties, and the consequent 
corruption in official life. I see a more insidious, a more 
deadly foe to the country's welfare in this easy, indifferent 
spirit which sits content by the fireside, while bad men worm 
their way into power, than in rebel bayonets and cannon. 
It is the stronghold of base measures and corrupt men. It is 
a poor tribute we pay to the memory of our dead heroes, when 
we scatter a few flowers on their graves, if we are careless and 
thoughtless in the exercise of our political rights. 

May I not appropriately on this occasion use the thought of 
our martyr president in that sublime speech at Gettysburg? It is 
not our poor words and prayers which make this gan a con- 
secrated memento. It has been already consecrated by our 
brothers' suffering and blood. But let us here consecrate our- 
selves to political fidelity, purity and justice, that we may carry 
on the work which they begun, and transmit untarnished to 
our children what they died to save. 

With one other thought I will close. It has already been ex- 
plained to you how this gun was loaded, and why it can never 
be discharged. Brave men have struggled for it in the carnage 



THE GETTYSBUEa GUN. 55 

and madness of battle. Once it was lost and then recaptured. 
Its voice is now forever silenced, and its place is to be amid 
the great enterprises and busy industries of this beautiful city. 

It symbolizes, as we proudly hope, the future history of our 
country and the final destiny of the world. The strife in which 
it played so noble a part is over. Its lesson must never be for- 
gotten, but its animosities must be buried in mutual helpful- 
ness and kindness. They were our brothers ; as honest, as brave, 
and as conscientious as we. 

On those battlefields the Bible was met by the Bible, and 
prayer by prayer. They believed in their cause as firmly as we, 
and sacrificed even more unselfishly. 

They lost and we won, because theywere wrong and we were 
right, and they were poor and we were rich. The cause of the 
strife was a mutual sin. Scarcely less was our guilt than 
theirs, and scarcely less have we suffered than they. 

One thing we must insist upon, cost what it may, that this is 
a land of equal rights and privileges for all its people. Hold- 
ing that as forever sacred, let us bear and forbear, give and for- 
give, scatter flowers on our dead and on their dead, for they 
were equally heroic, equally true to what] they believed was 
right, and they perished for a common crime. Every point 
that justice requires let it be yielded cheerfully and promptly,, 
and let all our conduct towards them be inspired as I think in 
the main it has been, by magnanimity and christian kindness. 

A glorious era will it be when all nations shall lay down their 
arms, and a code of international law shall bind them to ever- 
lasting peace. We catch glimpses of :the dawning of that day 
in a growing public sentiment for a congress of nations before 



56 THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 

wliicli all the differences of nations shall be tried. The ex- 
ample of England and the United States in the Geneva arbitra- 
tion has deepened that sentiment throughout the world. It is 
sure to prevail at last. For all the forces of civilization and 
Christianity are on its side. The telegraph, the steam engine, 
the printing press, are fast binding all races and nations 
together, creating a common interest by causing them all to 
suffer together or rejoice. 

War of nation upon nation wiU become a universal calamity 
by this interlinking of interest and sympathy; and the doctrine 
of Christ become a visible reality in a brotherhood of nations. 
When that glorious day has come, as come it surely will, may 
this gun again find voice to speak, and in thunder tones utter 
the people's joy. 

The interesting occasion was brought to a close 
with music — "Auld Lang Syne " — by the American 
Band. 

There was no re-formation of the line as a whole. 
The several veteran associations and the militia pro- 
ceeded separately to their respective quarters, and 
thus ended the great demonstration, which was nobly 
carried out despite the disagreeable weather. At the 
close of the parade the Gettysburg gun was placed on 
exhibition in the Journal Office on Weybosset street, 
by the battery boys where it attracted much attention 



THE GETTYSBURG GUN. 57 

from crowds of persons who eagerly thronged to more 
closely view the great war relic and curiosity. The 
storm cleared away after the parade, but that was not 
much comfort to the participants in the day's demon- 
stration. But the rain, however, was not allowed to 
dampen the ardor and enthusiasm of our Rhode Island 
veterans, and during the entire movements of the 
afternoon their general deportment was excellent. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




